News Operational UpdateRMP Energy Provides Operational Update
CALGARY, ALBERTA, Oct 13, 2011 (Marketwire via COMTEX News Network) --
RMP Energy Inc. ("RMP" or the "Company") (TSX:RMP) is pleased to provide an operations update.
At Waskahigan in West Central Alberta, the Company continues to successfully apply horizontal drilling and multi-stage fracturing techniques to delineate and exploit its 100%-owned Montney oil pool. Nine (9.0 net) horizontal wells have been successfully drilled to-date in 2011 with a tenth well currently undergoing drilling operations. Eight wells have been completed and tested with a ninth well scheduled to be completed later this week. This brings the Company's total wells drilled in Waskahigan area to fourteen (14.0 net).
Completion test results on recently-drilled Montney wells continue to be quite encouraging. The Company's most recently completed and tested Waskahigan horizontal well located at 1-3-64-23W5 recovered all of its load fluid during flow-back clean-up and finished its 24 hour production test on October 12, 2011. During this 24 hour test period, the 1-3 well produced 1,535 barrels per day ("bbls/d") of new oil with a gas-oil-ratio ("GOR") of 1,282 standard cubic feet per bbl ("scf/bbl"), for a total of 1,863 barrels of oil equivalent per day ("boe/d") at a flowing wellhead tubing pressure of 6,300 kPa (910 psi). The gravity of the oil produced was 40.5 degree API. The 1-3 well, based on test rate performance and flowing wellhead pressure, is the strongest Montney well drilled and completed to-date on the Company's Waskahigan acreage. RMP anticipates this well to be tied-in and brought on-stream in early November 2011.
RMP also recently completed two other wells at Waskahigan, located at 1-26-63-23W5 and 13-27-63-23W5. The 1-26 well finished its initial 24 hour production test on October 6, 2011 following flow-back clean-up. During the 24 hour test period, the well produced 1,202 bbls/d of new oil at a GOR of 1,060 scf/bbl, for a total of 1,413 boe/d at 4,000 kPa (580 psi) flowing tubing pressure. The gravity of the oil is 42 degree API. The 1-26 well is scheduled to be brought on-stream in early-November 2011. With regards to the 13-27 well, it was placed on-production October 8, 2011 after recovering 89% of its load oil. The well produced for a total of 44 hours before being shut-in to await the installation of artificial lift. During the 44 hour production period, the well's estimated production was 230 bbls/d with a GOR of 5,300 scf/bbl for a total of 434 boe/d at 3100 kPa (450 psi). Ninety-eight percent of the load oil has now been recovered, with a gravity of 41 degree API.
In the month of September 2011, based on field estimates, the Waskahigan field produced approximately 925 boe/d (including 560 bbls/d of light crude oil), relatively unchanged from the level produced in the month of August 2011. Commissioning and start-up of RMP's company-owned infrastructure, which will encompass an oil battery, compressor facility and gathering system with initially-designed oil processing capacity of 2,500 bbls/d, is expected to occur during the week of October 24, 2011 following completion of sales pipeline inlet connections.
Corporately, RMP's third quarter 2011 average daily production is expected to approximate 3,400 boe/d, weighted 76% natural gas and 24% light oil and NGL's, representing an 8% increase over the preceding second quarter 2011 output level of 3,143 boe/d.
The Company's fourth quarter 2011 production will be impacted as a result of an unscheduled plant outage at the mid-stream-operated Kaybob South #3 Gas Plant ("K3 Gas Plant"). RMP was recently notified by the operator of the K3 Gas Plant that a mechanical failure had occurred with the plant's sulphur condenser. The K3 Gas Plant has been shut down and is expected to re-start after repairs are completed, which presently is anticipated to take approximately one week. Assuming this field disruption is one week in duration, the overall production impact to the Company's reported fourth quarter 2011 production is expected to be approximately 100 boe/d.
Abbreviations
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Crude Oil and Natural Gas Liquids Natural Gas and Natural Gas Liquids
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thousand cubic
bbl barrel Mcf/d feet per day
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natural gas
Mbbl thousand barrels NGLs liquids
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bbls/d barrels per day MMcf million cubic feet
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barrels of oil
boe equivalent Bcf billion cubic feet
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thousand barrels pounds per square
Mboe of oil equivalent psi inch
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barrels of oil
boe/d equivalent per day kPa kilopascals
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Reader Advisories
Any references in this news release to initial and/or final test or production rates and/or "flush" production rates are useful in confirming the presence of hydrocarbons, however, such rates are not determinative of the rates at which such wells will commence production and decline thereafter. Additionally, such rates may also include recovered "load oil" fluids used in well completion stimulation. While encouraging, readers are cautioned not to place reliance on such rates in calculating the aggregate production for the Company.